On this, my fourth trip to Kenya, I am experiencing many familiar sights, sounds, and smells. Once one has made their initial visit to the Mathare Valley slums, the pure shock that comes from the concentration and level of extreme poverty lessens. It is still a difficult thing to see and experience, but one is not as shocked by it.
Even with the familiarity that comes with several visits to this location, there are also new things each time I am here. There are many changes to the physical surroundings – new buildings, new merchants, additions to the centers, the constant changes to the roads in Nairobi – but these are superficial changes that don’t reflect the deeper, more significant changes that are taking place.
The one thing that is constant with each visit is the very strong sense of hope one gets by being involved in the work of Missions of Hope, International. From seeing and hearing the children in their centers and sensing their hope for the future because of the education they are receiving; to visiting the boarding school at Joska and knowing the hope that comes from the great success with their schooling, meaning they will get to attend a good high school; to visiting a home in the Kosovo community and seeing the homeowners face when the tin is peeled back for their new skylight; to seeing someone who is ill being cared for by a physician or nurse and to receive medications; to sharing the gospel with a resident of the slums and watching them accept Christ; there is a very real sense of hope that one experiences when one is here.
Seeing and knowing the hope that comes from what God is doing in Mathare is very powerful. Hope comes from educating a child and knowing it will make a difference in their life. Hope comes from instilling Christian principles in the lives of thousands of children and knowing they will someday change their culture. Hope comes from visitors from America simply providing a sky-light and sharing the Gospel and knowing the encouragement it brings to a home filled with darkness. Hope comes from offering a free medical clinic and knowing that the medications provided will help the ill overcome their sickness. Hope comes from seeing another person make Jesus Christ the Lord of their life and knowing the difference that will make in their eternity.
Hope is very powerful, and it’s growing in the slums of Mathare Valley in Nairobi, Kenya.
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